Gear-changing mechanism



Nov. 19, 1929. E. J. RODIER GEAR CHANGING MECHANISM Filed April 5. 1928 3 Sheets-Sheet l M a a III-2:

//V///V70/F fdloa 2 6 06/10 Nov. 19, 1929. E. J. RODIER I I GEAR CHANGING MECHANISM '5' Sheets-Shef 2' Filed April 5, 1928 bi l [N709 fdwarm If/iad/f E. J. RODIER GEAR CHANGING MECHANISM 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed April 5, 1928 Patented Nov. 19, 1929 U i ST Ares linear E Y FICE EDWARD J. RODIER, on GLENOLDEN, PENNSYLVANIA, AssreivoR To LEwIs MANU- FACTURING COMPANY, or PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA,,A ooRPoRA IoNoF PENNSYLVANIA Application filed April 5,

broadly stated to be the simplification of the mechanism of the patent referred to. More specifically, some of the objects are thepro- I visions of improved adjusting means, an improved interlocking arrangement for preventing the simultaneous meshing of two 1 pairs of gears, direct connections between the gear shifting mechanism andthe gears, and more direct coaction between the selector cams and the dogs which look together the driving and driven hubsshown in the said patent, and an improved means for insuring positive selection. a

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description read in conjunction with the ac-- companying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic section through an automobile illustrating the connections between various operating parts;

Fig. 2 is a vertical section on line 2-2 of- Fig. 5.

Fig. 3 is a plan view, partly in section, of the gear changing mechanism.

Fig. 4 is a vertical section on Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a section on line 55 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 6 is a bottom view of the gear changing mechanism, partly in section.

A casting 2 provides a housing. for the line 44 of j operatin g'parts of the gear changing mecha- '6 respectively carrying depending yokes 8 and: 10, each of which is engageable within a GEAR-CHANGING MEGHANISM' 1928. Serial, No'. 267,562.

groove formed in the hub of a pair of sliding gears contained within casing 11. These gears may be of any suitable type arranged for selective engagement to impart the usual three speeds forward and reverse to the rear wheels of the car. It will be obvious, however, as the description proceeds, that more thanfour speeds may be provided by a simple extension of the design of the mechanism-described which, for thesake of clearness, is shown as providing a selection of the four speeds noted. l r 7 As shown in Fig. 1, the top of housing 2 is provided with a: cover, andsince its open bottom is secured to the open top of thegear casing a'closed-transmission unit is provided which is dust and dirt proof,

Yoke 8 is provided with a fork embracing a tooth 12 extending downwardly from a hub 14. Similarly yoke 10 is provided with a fork embracinga tooth=16 carried by a ,hub 18. Hubs 14 and 18 are loosely mounted on a shaft 20 journ'alled in the casing. V

Hub 18 is provided with radial recesses disposed'on opposite faces thereof, as indicated in Fig. 2, in which are slidably mounted dogs22 and 24. ."Similar dogs 26 and 28 are mounted in hub 14 in the same manner. Each of these dogs, as more clearly shown'in Fig.

4, is provided with an inner recessin which riphery. v The, portion of'each dog which is located within, the axial limit of a hub is provided with nose portion 32. The portion of the dog positioned outside theaxial limit of the periphery is .recessed as shown at 34.

Adjacenthub 18 in the side thereof carry- 'ing'dog 22, is provided a disk member35 carrying a flange 36, which projects over the hub portion of hub 18 and into contact with v the peripheral flange thereof. Flange-36 is cut away at 38 in orderto permit the outward passage of portion 34 of the dog. Portion 34 'normally retains the dog in inwa-rd position by reason of its engagement with the inner side of flange 36.

A central disk member 40, provided with a plurality of flanges similar to the flange of disk inenibereo is positioned between hubs- 14and l8,-theflanges thereof (reacting respectively with dogs 24 and 26. Another; disk member 42 is positioned adjacent hub 14to 90 194 wi h ides 28-; 'lli I Iifi ash if ifiie of these hubs and disk members are more fully described in the patent t Lewis-referred to above and reference is therefore made to said patent for more complete description.

Disk member 40 is loosely mounted on shaft 1' VQO-QWhileY'disk members 35 and 42 are fixedly secured .there'to, J'our'nalled in the housing in parallel relationship to shaft 20 is a shaft 44. Shaft44 carries fixedly a "collar 46 pro- 2ovided with a projection 48-,lshown in Fig. 5.

-- A Zpawl 50 having 'a portion 52 arranged for wound abou-tja stub shaft by which the pawl is carried. Hub 54 carries a crank arm -58 to whichone end o-f a link60 is pivoted. The

I other end of link 60 is pivoted ftodisk meme 64 engaging within a slgtin theperiphery of disk member 40. It willbe observed; 'that by" the connectionsidescribed, when hub. 54 is ber3'5 at 62. Hub 54is providedwith a tooth rocked-in one direction, disk-members 3,5;and-

" 42, which are secured to shaft 20, will be -rocked in thesame directionbyzmeans of 60. At thejsame time disk member 40 will be rocked in an 99 '4m .1i..'. .e n :Pa. 1 I 0 is provided with an adjustable fl i 6 th i h d th tthifefes zei kl rsi beyond itslower surface; as shown in.

a new 6 s r 'e ie lwi 1 9 li to preventits turning after being set to adb eri42n I p I Intlie operation si nifying gears; spendsp'ressienerthe enee pean,sh tters rest d d fit k lvi dire n, stew d 5; .l. l) ,ur ngjtl i elirst portion-of this goth tr gages end 52 of and therebyv rocks hub 7 justed position.o Screw gover ljies a cam 68, gforming apart of a hub 7 0 looselinounted "meme 44, with a tooth T2 engageable within a l slot in disk memckwise movement, pro'jection :48 ,en-

54 aicounter cloc'kwise direction shaft 442 A this eeunte'r c1 o1 wisemotionlesce'eds, disk member 42 receives 1 a similar counter-clockwise 'rn'otion andthi'fo'ughitseneese' n t Wi W t foi ks 1 11b it s clockwise direction. 1'Infthis"way, c am 68 is' I brought into contact with the lower end of screw 66 ami-evenmany liberates pawl 50' non engage ent with projebtio'n '48. Uponfurther "counter-clockwise movementfof shaft members 35 and 42 andther'egrter;

opposite direction by means;

' toits respective dogthat when its circular peripheral port-ion is presented tow-the dog, the P *ti'on or a cam'fori ceoperation with a dog.

44 thereafter, no further counter-clockwise movement will be imparted to hub 54. A projecting member 74 carried by collar 46 will now contact with the lower portion of merit. Thus it will be seen that a single coun #l ter-clockwise movement of shaft 44 imparts first a counter-clockwise move-ment to disk lockwise movement to the same disk members, f suitable stop my be provided either in the mech-' anism or outside thereof to limit the counterclockwise movement of shaft 44.

Shaft 44 is capable of an extent of clockwise movement which .carries projection 48 .censiderably to the right of end 52 of pawl "50. 1 Thus shaft 44 may vbe directly connected to the clutch pedal, the first portionof the ,move men t ofw-hich will serve 'to disengage the clutol r this movement occurring duringthe, operation in whichshaft 44 is moved to bring '48 into its first "engagement wi-th end A a shaft 20 car-ries aseries of cams 78,, 80, 82 and spaced about the cams at different fifths of the circumference of the shaft. Itwill thus shaft 76 "mounted parallelism with be observed that for: four of the fifths of a {turn imparted to sha-ft 7 6, one of the chordal portions will be brought adj ace'nt the dogs; -At the other fifth turn all of the cams w-ill present circulagportions of their peripheries to the dogs. Each of these cams is so related portion 32 of -the dog is engaged thereby and they dog'i-sjdep ressed with ledge 34 within its cooperating flange 36., On the other hand, when thechordal portionis presented to a dog, the dog is a free "to ride outwardly, so

thatl edge4 rides withintheout out portion 38 of the flange. A hub 88, secured to depressions 90 into which the en of'a'springpressed, plunger 92 projects. ,Thus shaft 7 6,;

is releasably'lat ched the selected one of its five positions, plunger 92 ridingout of the depressions 90 when motion is imparted forcibly (to shaft 76. It will be noted that the depressionsmeet each other to form reladepression, forcing the cam shaft around tos passively position the desired chor dal -porshift 7 fi is'prqvi ded V with live e ua lly spaced pinion 94 secured to the end er sha'ft'76 me'shes with segment '96 carried by 'a' 'stnb shaft 98. f A consideration of, the prior patent re-3L ferred to will render clear the operation of the present mechanism. During the counterclockwise movement imparted to disk members 35 and 42 and the clockwise movement imparted at the same time to disk member 40, the dogs and cut away portions 38 of the various members mounted on or about shaft are brought into the positions illustrated in Fig. 2, at which time the dogs are in position to be engaged by the cams on shaft 7 6. At

' the latched hub and disk member will rotate together, thereby bringing the selected pair of gears into mesh. Flanges 34 will ride over the ledges of the other dogs and consequently the other disk members will be unsecured to the hubs. Any suitable means may be provided to prevent the dogs from moving completely beyond the peripheries of the hubs as, for example, by means of a small ledge engaging the lower portion of a flange 36 when the dog is in the extreme outermost position which is desirable.

Rods 4 and 6 are respectively provided with notches 100 and 102 into which the tapered ends of a rod 104 mounted therebetween in the housing, may project. Rod .104 is of such length that if one of the rods is free to move by reason of the disengagement of the end of 104 from the notch therein, the other rod must necessarily be engaged by the end of rod 104. When either of the notches is engaged by the rod, the rod carrying the engaged notch is in its neutral position; consequently, it is impossible for two pairs of gears to be in mesh at the same time.

In order to insure against either of the rods accidentally moving out of position, notches 106 are provided therein engageable by the tapered ends of spring pressed plungers 108, which serve to releasably latch the rods in one of their three possible operative positions. 1 V,

A crank arm 110 is secured to stub shaft 98. Stub shaft 98 is movable upon movement of a selector arm 112 mounted on the support- I ing post of the automobile by means of suitwith clutch pedal 116, which is connected, as conventionally shown in Fig. 1, to a clutch By setting selector arm 112, the cam shaft,

is rotated to the desired position. Upondepression of clutch pedal 116, the clutch is first V disengaged and'then the disk members are rotated to shift the gears in the manner described above. A. subsequent release of the clutch pedal does not impart any movement to the gear changing mechanism but serves merely to permit the engagement of the clutch members under the action of a clutch spring. I f

It will be obvious from the description that another set orsets of disk members or hubs may be provided to actuate further gear shifting yokes so thatmore than four speeds may be given to the automobile.

While there has not been described in this case for the sake of clearness the provision for an emergency shift into reverse without giving the car a forward movement, it will be obvious that the mechanism described in the Lewis patent referred to may be incorporated into the present mechanism without any material change. V

Having now fully described my invention, what I claim and .desire to protect by Letters Patent is: i

1. In a gear changing mechanism, a rotatable gear shifting member, a second r0- tatable member, means operable to couple said members, clutch shifting mechanism, and connections between said second rotatable member and the clutch shifting mechanism whereby the operation of the clutch shifting mechanism rotates said second rotatable member, said connections including a pawl, a member engageable with the pawl,

a cam, and a follower for the cam carried by q the pawl and adjustable relatively thereto, said cam being operative to release the pawl from the member engageable therewith at a predetermined period in the movement of the second rotatable member determined by the adjustment of the follower.

2. In a gear shifting mechanism, a rotatable gear shifting member, a second rotatable:

member, a dog radially slidable in one of said members and arranged to couple said members when in outer position, a spring controlled rotatable cam arranged to engage said dog to determine'coupling oruncoupling of said members.

hereunto set 'my hand, at Philadelphia,

Pennsylvania, on this third day of Aprily urging said dog outwardly, and a manually I In testimony of which invention,.Ihave I 

